Etymology

-ly

Today it means: Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "behaving like, or having a nature typical of what is denoted by the noun" Similar in meaning to -like but most often paired with animate nouns. Full definition →

Middle English -ly ← Old English -līċ ← Proto-West Germanic *-līk
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-ly · suffix1

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*-līkaz“having the body or form of”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*-līk
  3. Old English · inherited from-līċ
  4. Middle English · inherited from-ly
  5. English today-ly

From Middle English -ly, -li, -lik, -lich, -like, from Old English -līċ, from Proto-West Germanic *-līk, from Proto-Germanic *-līkaz (“having the body or form of”), from *līką (“body”) (whence lich). In form, probably influenced by Old Norse -ligr (“-ly”) (Norwegian Bokmål -lig, Faroese -ligur, Icelandic -legur). Cognate with Dutch -lijk, German -lich, Danish -lig and Swedish -lig. Doublet of -like, more at like.

-ly · suffix2

  1. Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
  2. Proto-Germanic*līką
  3. English today-ly

From Middle English -ly, -li, -liche, from Old English -līċe.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.